Backdoor Cut: NBA Power Rankings

Time for the latest NBA Power Rankings

 

Music to listen to:  Shine by Alchemist

 

1- Los Angeles Lakers:  The downfall of the Lakers has been greatly exagerated.  As you saw in the domination of San Antonio on Sunday, Los Angeles is primed to go for the three-peat.  You saw everything in display for the Lakers.  Kobe Bryant putting together another excellent performance and making a case for MVP, the defense was better, particularly from Ron Artest.  The bigs were active and more importantly, the return of Matt Barnes gives the bench another capable body to give excellent minutes.

 

2- San Antonio Spurs:  They have been the best team for the entire season so I’m not going to dock the Spurs too much for one bad home performance.  However, the vulnerabilities of the squad are starting to show.  They have had to deal with the first significant injury to a top player in Tony Parker, who sat out the Memphis home loss earlier last week.  Parker did return to contribute to the impressive win against Miami but the problem with the Lakers game was the length of Los Angeles’ bigs.  Tim Duncan used to be able to handle opposing frontcourts on his own but those days are over.  Combine that with DeJuan Blair’s lack of height and the Spurs can be in trouble come playoff time.

 

3- Chicago Bulls:  What’s been the most impressive aspect of the Bulls’ championship-level play the last few weeks has been the balance of responsibilities for each top player and a uniform identity.   The Bulls play tough defense which means that they will be in a majority of contests.  Derrick Rose knows when to score and distribute the ball, Carlos Boozer picks his spots in the low block, Noah makes the right plays, etc.  There’s even been improved play from Luol Deng who has found his three-point jumper this year.  If the shooting guard spot, consisting of Keith Bogans and Kyle Korver, hit their three pointers, than the Bulls may become the best team in the East.

 

4-  Dallas Mavericks:  I’ve been on Dallas’ train all season but have to mark them down a few spots because the Lakers have been playing better lately, as well as the Bulls.  Maybe I’m judging too harshly for a squad that has been 16-2 in their last 18 games and both of those losses came on last second shots.

 

5- Boston Celtics:  I don’t buy too much into the Celtics being 5-0 since the trade of Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic.  The opponents have been the Clippers, Utah without Deron Williams, Phoenix, Golden State and Milwaukee.  The only potential playoff team is Phoenix.

 

6- Orlando Magic:  This has been Dwight Howard’s best overall season and it may be wasted on a squad that has inconsistent play from the perimeter.  The organization has to know that Gilbert Arenas would not be reliable but it also looks like Hedo Turkoglu hasn’t been able to return to the form he showed during his first stint with the Magic a few years ago.  Unfortunately for Orlando, the Celtics are still better, Chicago has passed them and even Miami can surpass them if the Heat can ever get their issues together.

 

7- Memphis Grizzlies:  There hasn’t been a quieter quality run in the league this season than what Memphis has put together recently.  The Grizzlies have beaten Dallas and San Antonio without Rudy Gay last week and even beat Oklahoma City last night.  I refer to Britt Robson of SI.com for my Stat of the Week.  Memphis has won three of four contests against Dallas and Oklahoma City, are 2-2 against the Lakers and even beaten the Spurs this season.

 

8- Oklahoma City Thunder:  If I did my Power Poll yesterday morning, the Thunder would be higher but the Memphis loss, combined with the lack of post defense in their loss to Phoenix earlier in the week showed that Perkins needs to return to play for them as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, the Thunder also don’t want to rush him back, especially with his knee issues.

 

9- Miami Heat:  Where do you begin with this bunch?  I’m going to save my thoughts on “Cry-gate” as its been dubbed for my other thoughts.  On the court, the reality is that the Heat are playing with two elite players and not receiving contributions from much else.  LeBron James and Dwayne Wade have shown moments of brilliance but have been the main reasons for the Heat’s late game troubles.   Wade is the better shooter, better ball handler and shown to do well in those situations.  Why he hasn’t taken control, I have no idea but blame goes to Wade for not asserting himself and shame on James for not deferring more often.  Furthermore, Chris Bosh has been a disappointment, even though he was named an All-Star this season.  His lack of post play, particularly on defense, has made life more difficult for Miami.

 

10- Portland Trail Blazers:  The Blazers are stuck in their current position because Dallas, San Antonio, Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City are better.  However, none of those teams wants to fall to the #4 spot in the playoffs and deal with those guys in the first round.

 

Other thoughts:

 

-My biggest issue with “Cry-gate” is that Miami’s head coach, Eric Spoelstra, was willing to make that information public.

 

Athletes, especially at the professional level, are supremely talented, have tremendous self-confidence and also extremely sensitive.  It doesn’t surprise me if a player or two was emotional after the Chicago loss and shed a tear, whether it was out of frustration, anger, sadness, motivation for a teammate, etc.  While this is usually done during a postseason situation and not during a regular season game is muttering the main issue.

 

One thing that an athlete doesn’t want to be seen as is weak.  He or she doesn’t want the spectator or an opponent to sense that the game is too much to handle at that moment.  If the player does show weakness, he or she wants it to be in private, in a locker room, where no one outside of the fellow teammates and coaches can see it.  In other words, what happens in the locker room, stays in the locker room.

 

Spoelstra violated this unwritten rule and if anything it may affect the Heat players’ view of their coach.  This doesn’t mean that James or Wade are going to intentionally lose games or that Bosh will not give maximum effort in every game.  What this means is that there will be a lack of trust between the coach and players and that may hurt the overall direction of the team.

 

-Its only been two weeks but you can say that both Denver and New York were winners in the Carmelo Anthony trade.

 

The Nuggets got value for a top player that wasn’t going to return to them after this season.  The Nuggets are now a more balanced unit, particularly at the point guard spot since Ty Lawson can finally develop with significant playing time.  You can see that players such as Kenyon Martin and even J.R. Smith are showing more patience on offense since they don’t feel that they have to score every time they touch the ball because Anthony was getting all of the shots.  Denver is even running more and increased its passing, which has to make head coach George Karl very happy.  He’s so happy that he just signed a three-year contract extension today with Denver.  I highly douby Karl does this if Anthony was still with the Nuggets.

 

The Knicks finally have their marquee player to build around and sell to fans.  Furthermore, Anthony wants to be in New York and that’s half the battle with playing for the Knicks.  There have been some inconsistent moments (see beating Miami on the road but losing twice to Cleveland since the trade), this move wasn’t for this season, even though it wouldn’t surprise me to see New York win one round of the playoffs.  The trade was about the next few seasons and Anthony will be valuable in that regard.

 

-Despite all of the talk about the Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers are only one game behind New York in the standings.

 

-When Chris Paul suffered his concussion against Cleveland on Sunday, you could imagine a dozen GM’s around the league hoping that it wasn’t serious.

 

-I’ll know more about the Hawks after tonight’s contest against the Lakers.

 

-My pick of Utah to have the second-best record in the West is looking worse and worse everyday.  Who knew that the longest-tenured coach in the NBA and the best point guard in the league going into the season would be gone by the first week in March?

 

-It hasn’t helped Williams that he’s been in a personal shooting funk since being traded to New Jersey.  The assists are still there but you can tell that something isn’t right health-wise becasue his shooting has been off recently.  To be fair, the travel he has experienced the last few weeks has been significant so that may also be a factor.

 

-The Clippers will not only make the playoffs next season but may even contend for getting home-court in the first round.  You heard it here first.

 

-If only Cleveland could play New York for 82 games a season…

 

-I’m still not giving up on DeMarcus Cousins…

 

-Finally, those who have been critical of Kevin Love and his record-tying 51 straight double-doubles need to gain a larger view.

 

Sure, you would think that the Timberwolves would be much better than a record of 15-50 with this run and that’s fair.  Minnesota has underachieved but its not solely on Love, even though he can improve on the defensive end.

 

However, look at the rest of the team.  Luke Ridnour.  Jonny Flynn.  Sebastial Telfair.  Michael Beasley.  Wes Johnson.  Darko.

 

Any of those players scream of talent.

 

Love is taking advantage of a lot of missed shots but he’s not the only post player to ever be in the same situation.  Some players don’t even take advantage of it like Love has.

 

I think that you want Love to be your second-best player if you want to have a top playoff team and your third-best player if you want to win a championship.

 

He’s not a superstar but is an All-Star caliber player who is on the verge of breaking a record that best  measures the production of a post player.

 

So give him some respect.

 

Those are my thoughts.  What are yours?